Current estimates of the deaths in the Algerian civil war
since the cancellation of the 1992 parliamentary elections
are at least 100,000, with many human rights activists
in Algeria and elsewhere claiming that the figure is at least
double that number, according to Algerian human rights
activist, Ahmed Bouzid, in an article in Z Magazine, (December
2000).

Between 1992 and 1999, thousands of political
detainees and prisoner of conscience were arrested and
illegally held, often for years without trial. In the few
cases where a trial was conducted, international fair trial
standards were routinely violated or ignored or suspended.
The practice of torture to extract confessions also became
routine. In 1998, Amnesty International reported, more
people are dying in Algeria than anywhere else in the Middle
East. Time and time again, no one is brought before a court
of law. There is just a statement, released to the press,
that a killer or killers has been killed.

A major human rights challenge the authorities have
yet to address properly is the case of the thousands of
disappeared people. In his 1999 campaign for the
presidency, President Bouteflika promised that his government
would carry out investigations into the disappearances.
Since his election, however, nothing has been done by the
authorities to reveal what happened to some 4,000 people whodisappeared
after arrest by the security and paramilitary militias
between 1993 and 1999.

The darkest period in the chronology of massacres in
Algeria began in the summer of 1997 and lasted until the
middle of 1998. During that period, rarely did a week ago by
when a massacre of civilians did not take place .

Officially, the Algerian authorities have invariably
attributed all violence to the shadowy GIA, an alleged
radical offshoot of the banned Islamist FIS. Doubts have
surfaced, however, over the true identity of the GIA, with
most Algerians coming to believe that factions within the
security forces resolute on not negotiating a political
settlement have been behind at least some of the
violence, and that the GIA is partially controlled and
manipulated by security elements.

Although government involvement has never been
conclusively demonstrated, some basic facts may
help to outline the truth. First, the majority of the
victims have been poor villagers and shantytown dwellers, the
very same people who voted with overwhelming support for the
FIS in the canceled parliamentary elections of December 1991 Most
observers find dubious and unlikely the proposition that
Islamists have turned against their very base out of some
feeling of desperation and hopelessness Instead, the
widely held belief is that elements within the security
forces averse to any political compromise have been following
a systematic scorched earth policy of demonizing the Islamist
opposition, terrorizing the popular base of that opposition,
and maintaining a general atmosphere of terror where
arbitrary state actions against any show of dissent can be
taken 

 stunningly flagrant [has been the] repeated
failure of the Algerian authorities to protect and come to
the rescue of civilians in mortal danger. According to
the Amnesty International 1998 annual report, most of
the massacres took place near the capital. Algiers, and
in the Blida and Medea regions, in the most heavily
militarized part of the country. Often massacres were
committed in villages situated close to army barracks and
security forces posts, and in some cases survivors reported
that army security forces units were stationed nearby.
The report went on to point out that the the killings
often lasted several hours, but the army and security forces
failed to intervene to stop the massacres and allowed the
attackers to leave undisturbed. (In March of this
year, an anti-terrorist case in Britain against three alleged
Algerian terroristsa case that has collapsed, resulting
in a ruling of not guilty in favor of the defendants 
has revealed through official secret documents that the
governments of Britain and the United States believed, in
sharp contrast to their publicly stated positions, that
Algerian government forces were involved in atrocities
against innocent civilians.)

Today, the magnitude of the violence has diminished,
but massacres do still take place. Beginning in July [2000],
reports of collective killings have again begun to surface.
Innocent vacationers, shepherds, and defenseless villagers
are again being targeted in what appears to be an
orchestrated campaign to cancel out any claim that the
country is on the path to normalization.

So far the indications are not good that the current
government of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is willing and/or
capable of restoring an adequate human rights situation or
bringing those responsible to justice. For one thing,
the rate of killings has slowly begun to approach the bad
days of the worst of the crisis. Moreover The
fate of the 4,000 disappeared individuals remains unknown no
independent inquires into the assassination of 58 journalists
have bee carried out and not a single assassin of journalists
has been caught alive and brought to justice: to this day,
also, no one is convinced that the truth has been uncovered
about who was behind the assassination of President Boudiaf
in June 1992, or who ordered and carried out the
assassination of ex-prime minister Kasdi Merbah, in August
1993, who slaughtered seven Italian sailors on July 7, 1994,
who was behind the Air-France hijacking in December 1994 and
the Paris bombings of July 1995, who carried out the
kidnapping and assassination of seven French monks in Algeria
in May 1996, who assassinated labor leader Abdelhaq
Benhamouda in January 1997, who was behind the assassination
of the popular Berber singer, Lounes Matoub, on June 25, 1998,
or who assassinated FIS leader Abeelkader Hachani on November
22, 1999. 

The Dirty War

Confirmation of Algerian government involvement in the
mass killings in Algeria came in a book published in France
by Habib Souaidia, a former officer in the special forces of
the Algerian army. His book, The Dirty War: The
testimony of a former officer of the special forces of the
Algerian army, 1992-2000 published in February 2001,
embarrassed the Algerian military. They hastened to denounce
its contents and the author as a criminal and a traitor.

Habib Souaidia recounts how the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)
gained political strength by capitalizing on the corruption
of the Algerian government, the partie unique  the sole
party --which had been in power for 30 years. In June 1990
the FIS won sweeping victories in local elections.
However they alarmed much of the public and the military when
the newly installed Islamist leaders announced a ban on womens
bathing and restrictions on mens bathing. Many feared
that if the FIS were to win the upcoming general elections,
Islamic rule would keep women from working, from educational
opportunities. Also, many feared that cigarettes and alcohol
would be banned by the Islamic authorities.

Souaidia was in a position to observe first hand the
reaction of the military to the emergent Islamists. The
country must not fall into the hands of the Islamists,
General Mohammed Bousharab warned a group of cadets at the
officers academy. Algeria is relying on you.
You are the pillars of the homeland and you must save it from
its enemies.

While Second Lieutenant Habib Souaidia acknowledges that
most of the acts of killing were carried out by Islamic
Front people, he presents eyewitness evidence of the
role of the Algerian army. In one instance he was
ordered to guard a truck on the way to a village where a
massacre subsequently took place. At a certain moment he
peeked inside and saw the silhouettes of dozens
of commando fighters armed to the teeth. He was told that
they were on their way to a special mission. Two days later,
he says, there were headlines in the press: Islamic
attack in Dawar Azatariya [the village in question]. Dozens
killed in the massacre. Souaidia felt that he had
been an accomplice to a terrible crime.

Souaidias book details his understanding of the
reciprocal slaughter. There was no torture that was not tried
by both sides. The Islamic liquidators slew entire villages,
and eradicateurs from the army eliminated anyone
suspected of belonging to or aiding the armed Islamic groups.

Souaidia finally determined to desert to the West to
expose what he called the dirty war. In
1995, he was sentenced to prison on a charge of stealing
spare parts. He felt he was being silenced for criticizing
the army and the behavior of his fellows. He served a year in
prison and after his release with the rank of private, he
obtained a passport, fled to France and was subsequently
granted political asylum.

His book embarrassed the French government as well
as the Algerians since both Presidents Francois Mitterrand
and Jacques Chirac stood behind the Algerian
administration and backed its war against the Islamic
fighters. Souaidia charges that the French government
is at the top of the list of countries who are aiding
the generals.

See also The Killing Fields: Whos Behind the
Massacres in Algeria? by Elie Chalala, editor of Al
Jadid, a review of Arab cultural arts, in In These Times,
January 10, 1999.

During the 12 Reagan and Bush years, starting with the
Omnibus Reconciliation Bill of 1981, tax revenues were cut by
more than $787 billion, which in turn led to serious public
health issues. The numbers of uninsured citizens skyrocketed,
the spread of dangerous infectious diseases spread, and
individuals were forced to shoulder a greater portion of
public health requirements as opposed to community,
responsibility for disease. This according to Laurie Garrett
in The Collapse of Global Public Health,(Hyperion
2000). Garrett writes that every state public health
department lost funding and personnel. From 1981 to 1993
budgets dropped an average of 25 percent.

Garrett charges that as a result of inadequate treatment
programs and monitoring for tuberculosis, we have been
confronted with the most frightening epidemic of multi-drug-resistant
tuberculosis in U.S. history, with the deaths including
caregivers. President Reagan eliminated the Refugee Health
Service, a watchdog agency guarding against imported
pathogens. The increasing antibiotic resistance of common
organisms in the United States and elsewhere -- caused
by unrestricted use of antibiotics heavily promoted by the
pharmaceutical industry  has led to increased deaths
among hospitalized patients. Water supplies
contaminated with a parasite, cryptosporidia have sickened
thousands in Milwaukee, New York City and Washington, D.C.
Five thousand Americans develop fatal food poisoning annually
due to contaminated food. The list goes on and on.

From a book review, Code Blue, by
Charles van der Horst in the Washington Post National
Weekly Edition, November 6, 2000.

"Two of New York City's most important reservoirs are
not being adequately protected under an agreement to cut
pollution that was signed [in 1997] by the city, state and
communities around the upstate watersheds, according to
a report" released February 1, 1999 by the Natural
Resources Defense Council, a private environmental group,
cited by the New York Times. (Andrew C.
Revkin, "Water Agreement Is Not Shielding Vital City
Reservoirs, Report Says," New York Times,
February1, 1999)

"Although an ambitious $260 million contract has led
to the purchase of more than 13,000 acres critical to the
preservation of upstate reservoirs, the city has obtained
only a single one acre tract near the Kensico Reservoir, a
vital basin near White Plains that funnels water from the
Catskills and Delaware River Valley -- 90 percent of the
total supply."

"The Kensico, where the city had made buying land a
top priority, is threatened by plans for subdivisions,
pollution from a nearby airport, expanding corporate parks
and a road-widening project, according to" the NRDC
report. "'It's not one single villain, but the threat of
death from a thousand cuts,' said Eric A. Goldstein, a lawyer
for the group, and a writer of the report."

"Similarly, he said, development is still advancing
up the hillsides around the West Branch Reservoir, in Putnam
County, which, like the Kensico is a conduit for some of the
cleanest water in the system, flowing from reservoirs farther
upstate. The West Branch and Kensico reservoirs act as
settling and blending basins for water from the Catskills and
Delaware Valley, but they are surrounded by fast-growing
suburban development in Putnam and Westchester Counties.

"As a result, even as tens of millions of dollars are
being spent by the city to fix septic fields, buy land and
otherwise protect the more distant reservoirs, that work
could be undone by pollution around the two small reservoirs
through which the clean water flows, Mr. Goldstein said. In
essence, according to the group's analysis, the city would be
pouring clean water into a dirty glass."

Some Palestinian West Bank towns have become "dustbins"
for Israeli industrial wastes -- including toxic wastes --
raising cancer rates 5 to 10 times normal according to local
Palestinian doctors and politicians. Dr. Abdul-Rahmen Abu-Hanih,
who has been practicing medicine in the area for the last 11
years, has "witnessed a tenfold increase in the
incidence of cancer -- mainly leukemia, prostate cancer and
Hodgkins disease" in the town of Azzun reports the
Manchester Guardian Weekly. (August 2, 1998, "Palestinians
pay price for Israel's toxic waste," by Julian Borger in
Azzun, the West Bank)

The Guardian reporter explains that the town is "a
victim of its political geography...[It] is only 30 km from
the industrial conurbation of Tel Aviv, but since it lies in
the occupied West Bank, under army jurisdiction, Israeli
waste-disposal laws are not fully enforced. So every few
nights trucks appear from the west and empty their cargo on
Azzun's doorstep."

"It is a pattern repeated in the nearby Palestinian
towns of Qalqilya and Tulkarm -- forming a triangle of
ecological desolation. And the effects could rebound on
Israel itself. "Qalqilya and Tulkarm are on top of the
most important water aquifers in the region,' said Mohammed
al-Hmaidi, director general of the Palestinian Environment
Authority (PEA). "It supplies both Israelis and the
Palestinians. If it is polluted it will affect everyone."

The dumping "is driven by hard economics. According
to Mr. al-Hmaidi of the PEA, it costs about $65 to hire a
driver -- usually a Palestinian -- to dump a five-ton truck
of waste chemicals in the West Bank. To dispose of the same
volume at Ramat Hovay in the Negev desert, Israel's only
approved dump site for toxic chemicals, costs more than $11,000.

"Dumps are being closed in Israel, increasing the
incentive to go and dump on the West Bank," said Gidon
Bromberg, the Israeli director of the environmental action
group Ecopeace.

"Environmentalists say the West Bank is suffering the
overspill effects of a profound Israeli ecological crisis.
The seriousness of the situation was brought home in July
1997 when a bridge over the polluted Yarkon river collapsed
during an international sports event. Four Australian
athletes died, two of them from simply swallowing the toxic
water. Another 15 year old victim is still in hospital."

"It is not just waste that is flowing across the
paradoxically named `Green Line' between Israel and the
Palestinian territories. As Israel tries to curb pollution,
whole factories are on the move to cheaper, under-policed
sites." According to Mr. Hmaidi, `There is an
ongoing process of transferring dirty industries, such as
aluminum, asbestos, paint-making and pesticides, from Israel,
where there is public resistance to them, to the West Bank."

"The Gishurei Industries pesticide factory is a vivid
example. After Israeli environmental protests, it moved about
10 years ago from Tel Aviv to Tulkarm [in the West Bank],
where it now pumps a daily cloud of waste products over the
Palestinian neighborhood 50m away."

"The proportion of children under six, living in
poverty has risen 12 percent over the past two decades from a
little over one in five to nearly one in four. So reports a
study by the National Center for Children in Poverty at
Columbia University's School of public health....Researchers
Neil Bennett and Jiali Li discovered that half the rise
occurred in California, New York and Texas -- from 1.2
million to 2 million. For the United States as a whole, the
total rose from 4.4 million to 5.9 million. "

"Now roughly 7.1 million of Germany's population of
82 million or almost 9 percent are foreigners, the highest
proportion in Europe, far ahead of the continental average of
5 percent and well above that of such countries as France (5.7
percent) and Britain (3.8 percent), according to an article
in the New York Times. ("Like it or Not, Germany Becomes
a Melting Pot" New York Times, November 30, 1997
by Alan Cowell)

In 1960, the foreign population of Germany was 1.2 percent .More
than 60 percent of legally registered foreigners under 18
were born in this country, a phenomenon that German officials
call "immigration by birth.

Turks, Yugoslavs and Italians make up a "settled
community of around 3.4 million -- two million from Turkey --
but the ranks of Germany's foreign population have also
swollen with war refugees from the former Yugoslavia, asylum-seekers
from many parts of the world and East Europeans drawn to the
Continent's traditional economic powerhouse. Berlin alone has
a Russian population estimated at 100,000. And Italians who
first arrived as guest workers now have automatic rights
under European Union rules to live and work in any of the
Union's 15 members countries including Germany."
Germany's unemployment stands at a record 4.5 million.

"Under the guise of "recycling," millions
of pounds of toxic waste are shipped each year from polluting
industries to fertilizer manufacturers and farmers, who use
toxic waste laden with dioxin, lead, mercury and other
hazardous chemicals as raw material for fertilizers applied
to U.S. farmland according to Multinational Monitor,
"Behind the Lines," (April 1998 http://www.essential.org/monitor/monitor.html;
email:
monitor@essential.org).

"According to an analysis of federal and state data
released in March [1998] by the Environmental Work Group (EWG),
between 1990 and 1995 more than 450 fertilizer companies or
farms in 38 states received shipments of toxic waste totaling
more than 270 million pounds....Not only does the EPA
allow these chemicals to be used in the fertilizers that go
on our crops, in most states farmers and consumers don't even
have the right to know what's being used,' says Richard
Wiles, the author of the study."

"... In a series of investigative articles, the
Seattle Times has documented the nationwide use of
cadmium, lead, arsenic, dioxins, radionuclides and other
hazardous waste in fertilizer. Tests by the State of
Washington found that some fertilizers contained very high
levels of dioxin -- 100 times higher than the level allowed
for treated Superfund sites in the state. Some
"states are scrambling to plug regulatory loopholes. [However],
most of the proposals would still not provide consumers with
[adequate] information [nor would they] put the burden on
fertilizer companies to prove that their products are safe."

US courts have upheld the free speech rights of
corporations to prevail over the rights of the public to find
out what is in their milk. An editorial in Multinational
Monitor (October 1996) attacked an August 1966 ruling by
a "a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Second Circuit" invalidating a Vermont law requiring
milk produced with bovine growth hormone (rBST) to be
specially labeled on the grounds that it would violate dairy
manufacturer' free speech rights. In dissent, Circuit Judge
Leval wrote that milk producers "do not wish consumers
to know that their milk products were produced by use of rBST
because there are consumers who, for various reasons, prefer
to avoid rBST."

Multinational Monitor, in its October 1996 issue,
pointed out how U.S. first Amendment free-speech rights
can actually allow corporate interests to prevail over
the public's. In this case, it has prevented consumers from
finding out what is in their milk. "A three-judge panel
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held in
August that the implementation of a Vermont law requiring
milk produced with bovine growth hormone to be specially
labeled would violate dairy manufacturers' constitutional
right not to speak...."

In dissent, Circuit Judge Leval wrote that under the
constitution, corporations' commercial speech rights
primarily concern truthful disclosure -- the very goal the
milk producers sought to undermine. He added: "Notwithstanding
their self-righteous references to free expression, the true
objective of the milk producers is concealment. They do
not wish consumers to know that their milk products were
produced by use of rBST because there are consumers who, for
various reasons, prefer to avoid rBST."

The Multinational Monitor editorial concluded that
"a more prudent approach to the corporate speech rights
issue is to ground protections for corporations in the
public's right to know. Where categories or types of
corporate speech advance the public interest by providing
truthful information, they should be protected; where they do
not, they should not."

North Sulawesi markets are packed with Indonesias
endangered animals, dead and alive. Poor and desperate
villagers have resorted to hunting for any animals they can
catch, from fruit bats to the crested black macaques. In
Southeast Asia, animals new to science have been found in the
markets, being sold as food. Were about to lose a
lot more species, no doubt about it, says leading
Indonesian conservationist, Tony Sumampau, as quoted in The
Wall Street Journal (Desperate Indonesians Devour
Countrys Trove of Endangered Species, October 26,
1998, by Peter Waldman, Bitung Indonesia).

The International market for bushmeat is huge. Most of the
animals killed in Indonesia are sold to foreigners on shore
leave near Port Bitung, 1,500 Miles NE of Jakarta. Prices
have tripled for monkey, says a dock side chef. Koreans
ask for snake and monkey stew. Taiwanese like brains.
In the food market, monkeys go for less than 100,000 Rupiah ($13)
each, and often for not much more than common meat, like wild
pig. The rapidly developing market for exotic
animal cuisine is playing off of Indonesias current
economic hardship. Now it seems that Indonesias
economic crisis is breeding an ecological one.

The increase of trade has been magnified by oil and
logging companies building access roads through forest areas.
Not only did this make it easier for non-native hunters, but
oil and logging workers saw a way to make extra money by
selling bushmeat on the side. A select few logging companies
in Congo and Zaire have begun checking the trucks of
employees for bushmeat, and even firing offenders, but most
logging companies feel threatened by environmental protection
laws.

The Congo is home to 10 monkey species, and 150 other
mammal species. Indonesia has more plant and animal species
than almost anywhere in the world, second only to Brazil. Of
the 515 mammals residing in Indonesia, 36% are found nowhere
else. The lush territory has been hunted for years by native
villagers without severe consequences, but now they are being
joined in the forest by city hunters and men from distant
villages (as a result of deforestation). Further, where
hunting used to be done with bow and arrow, rifles, traps and
search lights now aid the hunter. In the fierce competition,
natives are struggling to sustain their families. They often
spend the money they make on more traps, more guns, to try to
keep up with city and commercial hunting groups.

City people in Central Africa are eating bushmeat because
cow and chicken prices have been rising. A 1999 two part NPR
report from the Congo by John Nielsen, entitled Bushmeat
described forests with no sound; the animals there have been
vacuumed in order of size, monkeys and large
mammals first, working down to snakes, lizards and birds.
Carl Amman, a photojournalist in the Congo, reports that two
and a half tons of bushmeat arrive on the train to Camaroon
every morning. Everyone there knows it is illegal, but it is
ignored. The Journal of Science reports that in 1999 more
than 1 million tons of bushmeat will be killed and eaten in
Africa. As reporter Nielsen commented, that kind of
harvest cannot last.

Another ongoing ecological disaster is the "dynamite
fishing" occurring on Indonesia's Island coasts,
according to the The Wall Street Journal. The coastal
area, considered the richest marine resource in the world, is
torn apart by blasts that kill entire coral colonies and
hundreds of fish. An Australian marine biologist, Mr. Vernon,
was recently in the area and reported dynamite blasts every
15 to 30 minutes. Coral and smaller fish are also killed by
cyanide used to stun and catch larger fish live.

Some of the threat to on-reserve hunting in Indonesia is
by local hunters, who do not understand why they cant
hunt on land that their families have inhabited for hundreds
of years. The village of Bingaguminan is located at the edge
of Tangkoko Nature Reserve, and men from the village take
orders for baby monkey or fruit bat. They
see nothing wrong with selling meat to supports their
families. They have little incentive to abide by national
preservation laws, since they receive little in the way of
government assistance.

With over 200 million people, population pressure in
Indonesia, in conjunction with endemic poverty and periodic
economic crises make it difficult for the government to
devote resources to conservation laws. Many government
protected forests are being clear cut for wood and to plant
cash crops. Many animals, like the elephant and rhinoceros,
have been pushed into small reserves by growth of rubber and
palm-oil plantations built on forest land. In Sumatra,
rangers in Way Kambas National Park have been shot at by
troops poaching in the area. Three of the parks 37
known tigers have been killed by recent poaching, and a tiger
slaughterhouse was found in the backyard of a local police
chief (who was arrested and released three weeks later).

Similar eradication of animals happened in Europe and
America, but the killing frenzy there took a
century to reach such levels, whilst Indonesia is on the way
to accomplishing a similar result in 20 years. The
destruction of Indonesias ecosystems is a biological
tragedy without parallel in human history, says a World
Wild Fund for Nature scientist, Timothy Jessup. In
terms of species extinction, nothing of this scale has
happened since an asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs 60
million years ago.

Since at least 1994, Americans have been eating
genetically modified (GM) food. Nor do consumers have any way
of knowing whether the genes of bacteria, viruses, insects,
plants and animals have been introduced into the corn, soy
and dairy products they eat since labeling is not permitted.
The citizens of other countries are not in the same situation since
such countries as Brazil, Japan, India, Great Britain and
other European nations, have been banning or effectively
labeling genetically modified foods. The American Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), has done nothing to hinder the
sale of such foods in the United States, nor is food labeling
permitted by US government agencies.

The lead company in producing and creating genetically
modified crops is Monsanto, a St. Louis based chemical
giant. Others major players include Novartis, Dow,
DuPont, AgrEvo and Zeneca. Monsantos New Leaf Superior
Potato is registered as a pesticide with the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). The New Leaf Potato contains the
genes from Basillus Thuriengenesis (Bt) bacteria which
produces a protein toxin that is deadly to beetles. No
mention of Bt or genetic manipulation are on the potatos
label, even though consumers might be dubious about eating a
food that is legally a pesticide. The legal loophole Monsanto
found is that its Bt potatoes are not labeled as pesticides.
The EPA says that any labeling on the potato would be the FDAs
responsibility since it will be eaten as food. But the FDA
says that it cant label the potato since it cannot list
pesticides on food labels because such labeling is prohibited
by the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Sold on its own as a
pesticide, Bt has a warning label that tells consumers not to
inhale it and to keep it from open wounds.

In the creation of the New Leaf Potato, Monsanto had to
try gene placement in thousands of potatoes before getting it
right. When a new gene is placed into a plant it may go to an
unexpected place in the plants DNA. In the process,
thousands of plants may be created with the wrong combination
and may result in genetic freaks of nature. One would assume
that precautions are taken to make sure that none of these
genetic mix-ups get into the environment. But in the spring
of 1997 Monsanto accidentally released canola seed that had
an unapproved gene in it. A few newspapers
carried brief articles on the canola seed recall, but the
mistake was not widely publicized. Although Monsanto told
reporters that the recall was for a small amount, it told the
Evaluation Branch of the Biotechnology Strategies and
Coordination Office of the Canadian Government that it was
recalling 60,000 bag units of canola seed, enough to seed 600,000
to 750,000 acres of land. Some of the seed had already been
planted by the time the recall was issued. Brewster Kneen, of
RAMS HORN, a Canadian food-system newsletter,
pointed out that it takes a long time to produce enough of
the specialized seed for 60,000 bags, so the problem
apparently went unnoticed for quite some time.

The genetic code is like an ecosystem, Harvard geneticist
Richard Lewontin told The New York Times (Playing
God in the Garden, Michael Pollan, October 25, 1998).
You can always intervene and change something in it,
but theres no way of knowing what all the downstream
effects will be or how it might affect the environment. We
have such a miserably poor understanding of how the organism
develops from its DNA that I would be surprised if we dont
get one rude shock after another. Indeed, worst case
scenarios have already come about from genetic tampering. In
1989 a Japanese firm marketed L-Tryptophan, an amino acid
produced from a genetically-engineered bacteria. Unexpected
trace elements in the GM L-Tryptophan began to attack peoples
immune system. The result was a new and extremely painful
disease, eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS), which resembled
scleroderma. Five to ten thousand people fell ill from the
trace element of L-Tryptophan in their bodies, many were
permanently disabled and 37 people died.

Many are calling for extensive testing of GM products
before they are introduced into the environment. Rachels
Environment Health Weekly (# 549; June 5, 1997; www.rachel.org)
argues that without such testing, their effects cannot be
understood. The simple view, that genes control only one
characteristic of a bacterium, plant or animal has been shown
to be false. Genes contain a potential that can be expressed
in various ways, depending upon the environment in which the
gene grows. Thus a gene may develop in one way in one
environment and another way in another environment.
Rachels analysis seems to suggest that even with
extensive laboratory testing, we will not be able to predict
the result of introducing such genes into our environment.

As an example, the use of the Bt potato raises the
question of the unintended consequences of genetic
engineering. Bt is found normally in soil in small
concentrations and its presence helps to control insect
populations. The new Bt potato is certain over time to
promote resistance to Bt in insects. Farmers who have worked
to keep their crops pesticide free may face serious
consequences when insect populations develop new resistance
to such modification. Further, farmers growing Monsanto
potatoes must sign a document agreeing not to save the eyes
of the potatoes for re-planting. Monsanto has brought legal
action against farmers who have replanted. The company claims
ownership of that breed of potato.

Corn is more complicated than potatoes since it cross
pollinates. Corn from farmers in a GM free field might cross-pollinate
with Monsanto corn, and once again, Monsanto argues that the
affected corn becomes their property. In Sweden, organically
grown corn was found to be genetically contaminated.
This occurred in 1999, in a county that does not permit
farmers to plant GM crops. Apparently corn from outside of
Sweden cross-pollinated the Swedish crops.

The canola seed Monsanto has been marketing is one of its
Roundup Ready varieties. Roundup, a crop
pesticide, is Monsantos most profitable product,
bringing in $1.5 billion a year. Many of their new crops are
genetically altered to be resistant to Roundup. That way,
farmers can use much more Roundup, killing weeds but leaving
the crop alive (and covered with chemicals). The FDA has
deemed Monsanto products generally safe, but they
do no independent testing and they use test results provided
by Monsanto, despite some contrary evidence. For example, in
February 1999, Dr. Arpad Pusztai of the Rowett Research
Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland released findings that
indicated that GM potatoes fed to rats stunted growth, caused
inadequate immune systems and damaged major organs, including
kidney, spleen and stomach. Despite Dr. Pusztais 35
years of experience and his hundreds of scientific
publications, a bitter media campaign was waged against him
by the British government of Tony Blair which strongly
supports the introduction of GM foods despite popular
opposition. Administrative action was taken against Dr.
Pusztai due to his findings related to Bt potatoes.

Monsantos main interest is to sell as much as
possible, according to Phil Angell, Monsantos
director of corporate communications, in a New York Times interview
(October, 1998). Assuring [public safety] is the FDAs
job, the Monsanto executive asserted. The
difficulty is that the FDA uses Monsantos own tests as
valid proof of their safety. Further, since the inception of
GM products, former Monsanto officials have been working with
and for the FDA. In 1994, ex-Monsanto workers were working
for the FDA, approving products they themselves had worked on
while at Monsanto. This cooperation between industry and the
regulatory agencies supposed to oversee the industry was
detailed in an article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch by
Bill Lambrecht, entitled House Members Urge BST
Inquiry; Conflict Alleged in Three FDA Officials past
work with Monsanto (April 19, 1994). Monsanto also
gives generously to politicians including presidential
candidates of both major parties and to selected members of
Congress who are involved in food safety issues.

Besides Britain and Sweden, most European countries are
active in regulating GM foods, some banning them outright.
The European Union in its entirety placed a ban on GM corn
and the seven largest grocery chains in six European
countries went GM free in April 1999. Indias Supreme
Court has banned GM imports and has burned down crop fields
suspected of being genetically contaminated. 
Brazil, too, has banned GM imports, and Japan has required
labeling for all GM food.

Most countries banning GM foods, especially those in the
third world, are under pressure to reverse the bans. The U.S.
has recently been trying to use international trade laws to
force countries to accept GM U.S. exports. In the U.S. the
only way to avoid the now mainstreamed products is to eat
organic foods, which can be difficult and expensive. In the
United States, genetically engineered crops, are planted,
grown and eaten under well-known brand names like Quaker,
Frito Lay and Kelloggs. Dr. Pusztai, notes that it is
very, very unfair to use our fellow citizens as guinea
pigs.